The perfect foam pads for any tool, any job - McKee’s 37 Redline Foam Buffing Pads!
Backstory
After working at Meguiar's, followed by the geek and then at 3D plus detailing cars since the 1970s - I've used a LOT of pads. Heck, I have the ORIGINAL foam pad from 1965 in my office! When it comes to buffing out cars, boats pretty much anything, the most important aspect of the job is the abrasive technology. It is the abrasive technology that touches the paint first, then the pad, then the tool and then the tool holding the tool. In other words, the person is the furthest thing from the surface of the paint and while technique is important, the person is kind of the least important factor.
I've taught little kids and senior citizens how to create perfect, flawless, swirl-free paint finishes when they've had ZERO experience - this proves my point that it's the abrasive technology that is the #1 most important factor - not the person. That said, it is vitally important to use the right type of pad for the job at hand to work fast and efficient while producing optimum results.
What makes a great pad?
Great question and my opinion based upon experience is when it comes to foam pads, simple is better. You want a FLAT surface for a number of reasons. Because pads wear out, you want pads that are of great quality but at a decent price. The McKee's Redline brand of pads, custom made and ordered from Lake Country, (no one else has these shapes and sizes), are the perfect balance of a great pad at a great price.
Pad of choice for our detailing classes
For all our detailing classes, we will be showcasing the McKee's Redline brand of foam pads. With 4 different types to choose from in 3 different sizes, they will fit all our tools and all our needs.
Pad Information
McKee’s 37 Redline Foam Buffing Pads will deliver a flawless finish on every type of paint system. From rock-hard German paint to buttery-soft Japanese paint and everything in between.
Here is what sets McKee’s 37 Redline Pads apart.
Oversized compared to the competition
Our pads are oversized. The industry norm has been, 3.5” - 5.5” - and 6.5”. For faster results we increased our pads by a 1/4 inch in diameter. This provides an extra level of safety by having a little more pad stick out over the backing plate. It reduces the risk that when buffing into curved panels, thin panels or when going up on edge, (which you can only do with gear-driven orbital polishers), that the spinning outer edge of the backing plate won't come into contact with paint.
In fact, the tick larger size of these foam pads enables the foam to mushroom BACK instead of twist IN - and seasoned professional detailers know this is important. Having a tick larger diameter footprint also enable you to work more surface area in real-time. This helps out when doing paint correction on larger body panels, like pickup trucks, large passenger cars, suvs and also large motor coaches.
Uniquely shaped outer edge
The Redline pads have a cut back design with a 35-degree beveled edge. This makes buffing smoother when doing edge work or buffing into curved body panels.
Genuine Velcro brand hook and loop backing material
The Redline brand of pads also use the real-deal for hook and loop. Most inexpensive pads use generic hook and loop from budget factories. The Redline brand of pads uses genuine, trademarked Velcro hook and loop and this equates to maximum attachment strength to the backing plate and in most case, the Velcro loop will last as long as the foam. Inexpensive hook and loop wears out and you lose attachment strength.
This is why sometimes you see pads fly off backing plates! the hook and loop has worn-out prematurely and it can actually be dangerous to use the pad. If the pad flies offs the backing plate you could end up gouging the paint with the backing plate itself as the pad flew off. It's happened to me more than once in my life.
Open Cell design washes clean easily & lasts a long time
The yellow, orange and black pads are strict open cell design foam and this means fluids can enter and exit easily. This makes washing out your pads fast and easy.
The white All-in-One foam pads are a hybrid type of cell structure meaning they are not fully closed cell, but also not fully open cell. This means they still wash easily but require just a tick more wringing-out to fully remove any liquids. Not a big deal what's more important is this type of foam makes these pads very versatile in they offer good correction and excellent finishing thus a great all-around or All-in-One style of foam pad. Dedicated closed cell foam pads have very little tensile strength, this means instead of stretching the foam simply tears. Plus a true closed-cell foam pad is very difficult to fully clean.
Thin design optimizes pad rotation
McKee’s 37 Redline Pad System are 7/8” thin which improves pad rotation on free spinning random orbital polishers but still work great on gear-drive orbital polishers like the FLEX family of BEAST tools. The original BEAST, the Supa BEAST and the CBEAST. The problem with thick pads is they tend to absorb and dissipate the energy transferred from the motor to the drive unit and this shows up as pad stalling when using free spinning random orbital tools.
Pad stalling, which is when the spinning motion of a buffing pads slow, stalls out or even stops as you're using any free spinning random orbital polisher is an age-old problem. Too thin of a pad and there's simply not enough foam material to hold up over time. The McKee's Redline brand of foam pads is right in that sweet spot of not too thick and not to thin to enable maximum pad rotation when using free spinning random orbital polishers. Of course, pad stalling is never an issue when using gear-driven orbital and rotary polishers.
4 colors = 4 types of foam
There will NEVER be a universal color code for foam buffing pads so don't ask and don't complain. It's just never going to happen. Different pad companies use their own color code and while this causes confusion, it's really not that big of a deal in the real-world. The McKee's Redline brand of pads keeps it super simple. 4 types of pads that will tackle any realistic paint correction job.
- Yellow = Cutting
- Orange = Polishing
- White = Light Polishing
- Black = Finishing
The difference between the orange and white pads for polishing is the orange offers a tick more correction ability together with the abrasive technology being used, while the white foam pads offer a tick less correction ability making them able to remove defects or finish out perfect on virtually any type of paint simply by choosing and using the best polish or All-in-One product for the task at hand.
We cover a LOT of technique in our detailing classes during the class session on how to do high quality production detailing. People that take our classes learn this type of information and don't make mistakes like so many others that intend to do a one-step and end up doing a two-step process because they chose the wrong pad.
Size-matching Velcro Hook & Loop
The Velcro loop materiel on the back of the Redline foam buffing pads measures, 3”, 5”, and 6” respectively for the size of the pad. This means they will easily fit and CENTER onto most tool backing plates. As any seasoned professional detailer knows, aligning and centering your buffing pads onto your backing plates is vitally important not just to maximize the action of the tool but to reduce felt-vibration to your hands and arms.
Below are some of the most popular polishers on the market that use 3", 5" and 6" backing plates. You can see by the pictures that after centering the backing plate onto the Velcro backing - there's just a tick extra Velcro material sticking out past the backing plate. This is vital in order for your eyes to see where to place the backing plate in order to more perfectly center the pad onto the tool.
See the Velcro overhang around the outer perimeter of the backing plate? This tiny extra little bit of Velcro may not seem important, but if the diameter of the Velcro is not exactly the same size as the diameter of the backing plate or a little larger - it will be both difficult and time consuming to CENTER your buffing pads.
It's important to center your buffing pads because this reduces vibration to you. It also maximizes paint correction efficiency as well as reduces pad stalling on free spinning random orbital polishers.
FLEX CBEAST
Below is a 5.75" Redline Foam Cutting pad centered on a FLEX CBEAST with the factory 5" backing plate. A perfectly centered fitment.
Below is a 6.75" Redline Foam Cutting pad centered on a FLEX CBEAST with the optional 6" backing plate. A perfectly centered fitment.
These two polishers are ready to get to work removing swirls and scratches!
FLEX PXE-80
In the below picture, I'm centering a 3.75" white All-in-One foam pad onto the 3" backing plate on FLEX PXE 80 Mini Polisher. Also known as the FLEX PiXiE
When the Velcro is made correctly it's much easier to center your buffing pads.
Porter Cable 7424XP
In the below picture you can see the McKee's 37 Redline 5.75" foam buffing pads fit the Lake Country 5" DA Backing Plates perfectly. Centering your pad enables you to maximize pad rotation on free spinning random orbital polishers like the Porter Cable 7424XP .
RUPES BigFoot 21
The McKee's 37 Redline 6.75" foam buffing pads center perfectly on the 180mm RUPES backing plates on their BigFoot 21 free spinning, random orbital polishers.
RUPES BigFoot 15
The McKee's 37 Redline 5.75" foam buffing pads center perfectly on the 180mm RUPES backing plates on their BigFoot 15 free spinning, random orbital polishers.
Lake Country Power Tools UDOS
The Redline 5.75" foam buffing pads work perfectly on the LC Power Tools UDOS
The FLEX BEAST!
The McKee's 37 Redline 6.75" foam pads fit the 5.5" backing plate on the 8mm gear-driven FLEX XC 3401 VRG aka The BEAST!
Rotary Polishers
The McKee's 37 Redline foam buffing pads work great on any rotary polisher matching the pad size to the backing plate size.
The Redline foam buffing pads fit all fo the Griot's Garage BOSS polishers.
Redline Yellow Foam Cutting Pads – Open Cell
3.75” = $6.95
5.75” = $9.99
6.75” = $10.99
Redline Orange Foam Polishing Pads – Open Cell
3.75” = $6.95
5.75” = $9.99
6.75” = $10.99
Redline White All-In-One Foam Polishing Pad – Hybrid Open/Closed Cell
3.75” = $6.95
5.75” = $9.99
6.75” = $10.99
Redline Black Foam Finishing Pad – Open Cell
3.75” = $6.95
5.75” = $9.99
6.75” = $10.99
Questions?
Do you have questions about which type or size of pad for the polishers you use? Join the forum by clicking here and post your question to this thread or shoot me an e-mail or give me a call during normal business hours 9-5 Monday through Friday Eastern time as I live in beautiful South Florida.
Mike Phillips
Mike@AutoForge.net
Cell: 760-515-0444
